The community is invited to help harvest the USDA Forest Service Sitka Ranger District/Sitka Tribe of Alaska Tlingít potato garden and learn information about the unique crop. Harvesting will take place from 1:30-3 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26, and will include an oral history of the Tlingít potato and some traditional stories of these important little tubers. Volunteer and liability forms will need to be signed by all attendees.

The Sitka Ranger District provided the sunny plot of land to serve as the shared potato garden and tended the garden over the summer after volunteers from the Sitka Tribe’s Traditional Foods Program, the gardening class from Pacific High School, and others from the community planted the potatoes in April. School and Tribe volunteers are expected to assist in the harvest, but community involvement is also needed. Attendees are asked to wear boots and gardening gloves, and bring hand trowels or shovels. Bringing five-gallon buckets of kelp to incorporate into the soil after harvesting would be beneficial as well.

All of the potatoes will need to be dried and prepared for storage. Many of the potatoes harvested will be saved as next year’s seed potatoes. Depending on the size of the harvest, the group hopes to share the harvest among the volunteers and through the Sitka Tribe’s Traditional Foods Program, which provides traditional foods to elders through the year and seasons. 

For more details, contact Raeanna Wood at raeanna.wood@usda.gov or 907-747-4202.